With the Red Sox casting a wide net to improve their roster this offseason, Triston Casas’ name has been a fixture in trade rumors. Most notably in connection with the Seattle Mariners, who have a need for offensive talent and an abundance of young starting pitching to offer.

However, after acquiring starting pitcher Garrett Crochet from the White Sox and signing free-agent starters Walker Buehler and Patrick Sandoval, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow was prepared to shut down the Casas chatter. During a Zoom call on Monday, he was adamant that while the Sox have listened to offers for their first baseman, they haven’t been actively offering him up.

“I’m not totally sure where it comes from,” Breslow said. “We’re not shopping Triston.”

“When you have really good young players, I don’t think it’s surprising that other teams would ask about them,” Breslow continued. “But I’ve seen some of the speculation about what deals may or may not have existed or what may or may not have been proposed, and there was nothing that was remotely close. We’re certainly not shopping him.”

Casas put himself on the map when he finished third in ‘23 AL Rookie of the Year voting, but a late-April rib cartilage injury cost him four months and 99 games this season. Breslow indicated the Red Sox think they can get a lot more out of Casas by holding onto him for now.

“We see him as a guy that can hit in the middle of the lineup for a really long time here in Boston,” Breslow said. “Obviously, plus power, plus strike zone judgement, the ability to get on base, and it’s someone that I don’t think we’ve seen the best of. He obviously missed a number of months during the season. We’re really excited for him to be completely healthy; he’s had a full healthy offseason.”

Casas is under club control through 2028. Though he turned down a contract extension last offseason, describing the team’s offer as “nothing enticing,” he’s made it clear he’d love to stay in Boston. “I want to be here forever,” he said last February.

Non-starter needs

Breslow also discussed a willingness to go with a six-man rotation in 2025. The Red Sox have been reluctant to expand from the traditional five-man in the past, but with approximately nine starting pitching options on the 40-man roster – though Sandoval is among those who will begin the season on the injured list – they’ll be flexible, with health and durability as deciding factors.

The Red Sox have made significant progress, but their offseason to-do list is far from complete. A right-handed hitter is the most glaring need. With their lefty-heavy lineup, the Red Sox were 17-26 against southpaw starters this year. Healthy production from righties Trevor Story and Vaughn Grissom would certainly ameliorate the issue, but they don’t come close to replacing the power production of Tyler O’Neill, who parlayed his team-leading 31-homer season into a multi-year deal with the division-rival Orioles.

“Given that most of the heavy lifting in the rotation is largely done, I think we’ll shift our focus to thinking about how to balance out the lineup,” Breslow said Monday. “We’ve talked about some right-handed bat helping to equalize the significant number of left-handed hitters that we have, and then also we’ll probably look to add in the bullpen as well.”

Hot (corner) topic

In order to fit a righty bat into the lineup, the Red Sox could make a significant change. On Monday Breslow signaled more of a willingness to move Rafael Devers off third base than previously expressed by the front office.

“Raffy is our third baseman,” Breslow said. “He’s having a really productive offseason. … We’re really optimistic about what we’re going to get out of him. He’s talked about coming to Fort Myers early this year and really focusing on getting himself ready to have a great season.”

“With that said,” Breslow continued, “We’ll be open-minded and we’ll be creative in terms of how we put together the best roster. But as things stand right now, Raffy is our third baseman.”

In the past, Breslow said the team wouldn’t consider moving Devers, who is the highest-paid player in franchise history, without discussing it with him first. At the MLB Winter Meetings earlier this month, manager Alex Cora said he could “guarantee” there had been no such discussions with Devers. Publicly stating a willingness to “be open-minded” implies the topic has been broached with the homegrown superstar.

Devers takes immense pride in playing third base and has worked diligently to improve. Earlier in the offseason, his agent told the Boston Globe that Devers had no plans to move for the foreseeable future. That Devers adjusted his offseason program indicates additional motivation to succeed at the hot corner.

The Red Sox have been linked to longtime Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, the top free agent remaining on the market. At the Winter Meetings Cora, who was Bregman’s bench coach in 2017, suggested he could move to second base.

The Red Sox have also been loosely connected to decorated Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado, who used his no-trade clause powers to veto a move to Houston earlier this month. Arenado’s offensive production has been in a sharp decline in recent seasons though, and he’s owed $74 million over the remaining three years of his contract. The Colorado Rockies, who originally traded Arenado to St. Louis, are on the hook for $5 million in each of the next two seasons. The Cardinals are reportedly willing to eat $15-20 million as well. A source told the Herald that several teams are willing to take on Arenado without additional salary relief from the Cardinals, but the Red Sox aren’t one of them.